OREANDA-NEWS According to the Federal tourism Agency, the demand for tourist trips in Russia is associated with the political situation, improvement of infrastructure and service, active promotion of tourism products, the appearance of package tours since 2015.

The number of tourists in the regions of Russia, according to the preliminary results of the most popular summer tourist season, increased by 15%. This was reported on Sunday at a meeting of the Commission on tourism development of the Russian geographical society (RGS) Deputy head of the Department of state tourism projects and security of tourism, head of the Department of tourist information resources and security of tourism of the Federal Agency for tourism Tatiana Menshikova.

"Preliminary results of the summer tourist season in 2018 show an increase in demand for tourist trips in Russia: the number of tourists in the regions of the country this summer increased by an average of 15% compared to last year. Perhaps at the end of the year the figure will be much higher. In 2017 the number of tourists for the year amounted to more than 56 million trips," said Menshikov.

According to the representative of the Federal tourism Agency, the demand for tourist trips in Russia is associated with the political situation, improvement of infrastructure and service, active promotion of tourism products, the appearance of package tours since 2015. Also in recent years, the country has hosted two large - scale events-the 2014 Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which helped to prepare the tourist infrastructure in the cities.

On September 11, the head of the Federal tourism Agency Oleg Safonov at the Eastern Economic Forum 2018 in Vladivostok said that the demand for domestic tourism among Russian citizens increased due to the depreciation of the ruble. However, as Safonov noted, the increase in demand may not be long-term, as with the growth of demand for travel to Russia, their cost may rise.

The Russian Federation has a Federal target program (FTP) for the development of domestic and inbound tourism for 2011-2018, 45 tourist and recreational clusters are created in 35 regions of the country.

"Rosturizm has developed a project of a new FTP for the development of domestic and inbound tourism in Russia for 2019-2025. The concept has already been approved by the government on 5 may 2018. Within the framework of the program, 15 promising tourist integrated investment projects were identified, one of which is Siberia, where the Altai territory occupies a leading position," Menshikova explained.